Show gtoiharii-feamt- (©gftett 4A OGDEN William F Buckley or Expatriate Advises Americans SUNDAY AUGUST 10 1980 UTAH EDITORIAL Voters Should Not Ignore School District Contests Voters in Utah’s primary aspirants and fifth with seand the ven candidates lection Sept 9 general election Nov 4 — Weber — Only two terms should not ignore candidates expire at year’s end but there seeking membership on local are primary battles for both school district boards of edu- seats — four candidates in the cation fourth precinct and three in 25 of Fifteen the seats on the the fifth That makes 47 candidates five boards in the four Golden Spike Empire counties are at for 24 primary nominations with 15 board members to be stake this year These are posi- elected in November in the too All tions frequently they Golden Spike Empire What qualifications should are overlooked in the hustle conbustle and controversy of they have ? naA news bulletin from the tests for county state and tional offices Morgan County School District enumerates a dozen They shouldn't be I Boards of education annual- characteristics that the Utah ly spend more than half of all School Board Association taxes collected for use by feels would be ideal for board state and local governments members — specifically according to Here’s that list: 1 Have an abiding interest Utah Foundation records $575 million out of $11 billion in in the “worth and dignity” of 1978 Expenditures since have all children and a driving desire to aid all children to atincreased greatly Out of $3413 million in pro- tain their own educational poperty taxes collected in 1979 tential 2 Have an awareness of the the Foundation said $2003 non-partis- There is a character in Washington who writes for the Washington Post and should be slipped a tranquilizer though these are said not to mix happily with booze His name is Henry Fairlie and to the great relief of Great Britain he is an expatriate devoting himself to advising Americans how to behave Somewhere along the line he acquired the designation of “conservative” The etiology here eludes the memory but it is true that he defended US participation in the Vietnam War of resistance One suspects after enduring a few short hundredweight of Mr Fair-lie’- s homilies that he really came out for the Vietnam War in order to an million went to public schools Utah traditionally leads the nation in number of years of schooling our young people receive This is reflected in costs — and money spent by school board members Of all personal income in the state in fiscal 1977-7- 8 the Utah Foundation found 1081 percent was paid out for publs ic education went to local schools most of the remainder to colleges and universities But that's only the financial part of the story Of even more importance the policies established by school board members are of vital importance not only in educating our boys and girls but in molding the future of our young men and women It’s not an easy job The pay for members of the boards of Two-third- both Davis — Because of a resignation four of five memberships are open with primary contests in all There are six aspirants in precinct No 1 four in No 2 three in No 3 and four in No 5 Morgan — Three seats are “up” with only two candidates in the North Morgan-Croyde- n precinct but three each in Peterson and Canyon Creek for the primary Ogden — The incumbent in the first precinct is unopposed but there will be primary contests in the fourth with three an undisciplined Catherine’s Paul Harvey “Fragging” Any ex-G- knows I carry out an effective the proper discharge of board responsibilities 5 Have the courage and the ability to select the most professional competent staff available to help establish and educa- tional program 6 Have a deep conviction to the American democratic undermine such decisions when in authority 9 Have the ability to vote in an objective manner after all sides have been heard and studied carefully 10 Have the ability to avoid being swayed by pressures are gamblers Whatever other BELGRADE Yugoslavia — Everywhere in this country — from store windows from the wralls of cafes even from the side windows of passing automobiles - the portrait of Marshal Tito gazes at those he has left behind The portrait is the same portrait It is strong virile John Wayne with just a touch of the benign “Hold on I am with you” it seems to say I suspect that in the 18th century portraits of George Washington served a similar purpose in our own still tenuous union For union is what Yugoslavia must have Croats Serbs Montenegrins Bosnians and Macedonians seem aware of it “Do not quarrel do not raise divisive issues do not think of yourself as Serb or Croat or anything else Think of yourself only as Yugoslav” In the past two weeks I have traversed this land from north to south and east to west and that is the watchword reflective of the awareness of danger and of determination to surmount it No-Noti- ce Raise Ogden Wouldn’t you expect an avid church-goin- g man to be a good Christian? I thought so but I found lf lf years Wednesday night July 16 10 days before my rent was due a knock came on my door at 10:30 1980 by NEA Inc “Who do I see about whumpin’ up a White House-Libya- n softball game?” ging President Carter moved into that top job naively convinced that good intentions would be enough He approached us in sweaters and jeans enemies have known about “Billy-gate- ” for months — but waited to carried his own suitcase on trips to of discontinued the playing “Hail exploit this thing until the time was the Chief” to herald his arrivals right issued a folksy invitation to his President Carter states “We have nothing to hide and nothing Cabinet to “open dissent” back and everything is In the years since the sweater will be heldout ” laid and jeans have been replaced with being But those who oppose him beblue serge aides carry the luggage “Hail to the Chief” resounds cause they want somebody else — — and the dissenters are long gone and those who oppose him because he’s a “loser” — they But the President demonstrates they think any lengths to keep the that he remains just enough out of will go to off balance President touch with political realities to imagine that he can “make a clean They will get a known con man in breast of everything” and thus the Bahamas to testify in a manner sidestep any involvement in “Billy-gate- ” that implies White House involvement in brother Billy’s caprice incomno he has “Fragging” It is a word not inApparently in most cluded dictionaries but prehension of the tenacity of his opponents nor the allegiance they tegral to the unspoken vocabulary of any combat soldier enjoy from the liberal media It has to do with shooting an in the remained primKennedy field commander — in the race after unpopular long delegate ary numbers had shut him out — wait the back pm and the two men standing there proceeded to inform me they had bought my house and that my rent was being raised as of July 26 to $225 a month — “only” $140 more than I have been paying All this I learned from my new landlords Not a word from my exlandlord Naturally I asked when they had inspected the house They said my had showed th m my house without even both i mg to tell me while I was away on vaca ex-landlo- rd afraid that the center would not hold I do not see why the cult of Tito may not serve Yugoslavia as the cult of Washington once served us In the days following Tito’s death there was much speculation about the weakness of the system he left behind Passing the presidency around each year from one regional leader to the next did not seem a good way to surmount the next crisis And indeed no crisis has yet tested this curious mechanism But foreign diplomats note that so far the thing seems to work For example when President Carter visited here in June the diplomatic corps expected that the current president of Yugoslavia might show an unwillingness to discuss matters of substance such as the SALT treaty Wouldn’t he have to go back to his brethren to secure their permission to voice approval or disapproval of the points Carter raised? It did not turn out to be so The diplomatic corps was impressed So there is nothing yet to prove that the system will not work Those Croations who during Tito’s last years complained bitterly about spending a portion of their comparative riches on the poor of Montenegro have been silent since his death The invasion of Afghanistan mean spirited ungenerous envi- intolerant afraid chicken bullying trivially moral falsely ous patriotic family cheapening flag cheapening God cheapening the common man shallow small sanctimonious” But isn’t this image inconsistent with the reputation — at least — of the (largely Jewish) intellectuals who make up the movement? I mean such folk as Norman Podhoretz? Irving Kris-tol- ? Daniel Bell? Midge Decter? Seymour Lipset?—those highly educated highly idealistic men and women who have had the courage to measure the shortcomings of schematic liberalism? “These men” says Mr Fairlie “are not evil They are not even reactionary They simply are vulgar (‘are simply vulgar’ would be less vulgar)” No one with nostrils less flared than Henry Fairlie’s can imagine the pain of having to breathe the same air as Irving Kristol You see although he elected to leave Europe Fairlie simply has to say it for our own good America is neo-conservati- ve less cosmpolitan than Europe Poor Europe “Europe shudders today” Mr Fairlie tells the read- awakened the old fear of the Russians But fear seemed to serve as a unifying force The Yugoslavs are well aware that a threat from the Soviet Union would most likely arise as a result of their own disunion They do not fear an overt invasion if only because they are proud of their own strength and of their impregnable mountain fortresses But they know that the Russians might come to the aid of dissidents All the more reason not to permit dissidence Which is surely the reason why g there has been some lately at such as the poet and author Djilas His recent interview with a German magazine in which he said that Tito had many faults finger-waggin- was rigorously banned here Foreign newspapers which carried an account of the interview simply disappeared from the newsstands Yet they were back the next day carrying their usual wide range of opinions and comment including comment both favorable and unfavorable on the subject of Yugoslavia This is not a free country But it is freer than any other country which calls itself Communist If it can hold on to its unity for a sufficient period of time it may yet go all the way ers of the Washington Post “The America which Europe fears is the America of the Reaganites The on the floor (in Detroit) Reaganites were exactly those who in Germany gave the Nazis their main strength and who in France collaborated with them and sustained Vichy” Waal Henry over here in America though less cosmopolitan than across the pond among the folks you came from we never have elected a Hitler to power Strange And we never had a Vichy government — strange And we never swore we’d refuse to fight for king and country at a moment in history that made possible the rise of Hitler And we didn’t fashion the diplomacy that created two world wars 30 million killed and an Eastern Empire ruled by Josef Stalin Perhaps it requires a little provincialism to contrive a diplomacy of a kind that doesn’t depend on the United States every generation or so to send the Yanks over to bail out the cosmopolitans Mr Fairlie begins his love-son- g to America by denouncing the tiresomeness and vulgarity of Henry Mencken who himself railed against the Philistines “Mencken could in his writing be as much a boor as them” pronounces Henry Fairlie who should study grammar before graduating to the study of manners Voice OF The People out otherwise last week I have !een a dependable tenant for almost nine years in the same house My landlord bought my house about two and one-hayears ago from his brother who was my landlord almost six and one-ha- © conspirtors in this attempted frag- the evening that Reagan was nominated Would you care to know how our ing for the President to stub his toe some for defeat diplomatic waiting British friend characterizes the or personal embarrassment men and women who voted for It is not undue cynicism to im- Reagan? They are “narrow mindagine that Carter’s political ed book banning truth censoring Yugoslavs Still Fear Russians education They’re posts of extreme importance in the and should not be overlooked at election time the previous night’s dissipations He must have disported heavily on Tom Braden biases or prejudices whether personal or public 11 Have proved potential competence as a board member by having succeeded in some civic business or service group or venture Once again I suspect that when 12 Be honest and have other George Washington died our ancestors knew much the same mixcharacteristics indicative of of and resolve fear ture the highest type of ethical and I make no comparison of course moral citizenship between the two men Only that Those read like the qualifithey both became symbols and cult figures at a time when men were cations of an angel! That’s about what it takes to serve on a district board of American scheme of things — Wheel whose columns read like an angry and disordered reflection of 'Fragging' in Partisan Politics names are mentioned as possible nominees it’s on the longshot gamble that the nomination can be diverted to Kennedy that some Democrats risk the wrath of the present President If he gets reelected he will not be favorably disposed toward the co- - 4 commo- tion about himself And then every now and again he will drop the word “aristocratic” or will quote from Cato the Elder or whomever to maintain the minimal flying time necessary to guard his license as a “conservative” What he is is Have available the time required to be an effective board member and have the willingness to give it freely for district way of life and have a desire to perpetuate democratic concepts in public education 7 Have a desire to work education is only a token And harmoniously with others acthe responsibilities are heavy cepting the democratic principle that while the majority Fortunately there are enough men and women of may not always be right one high caliber who believe in must accept majority service to the community that decisions 8 Have enough respect for the lists of candidates seeking positions on the board is fairly democratic processes to accept majority decisions withlong Here's the situation in our out feeling compelled to region's four counties: Box Elder — Three of five memberships expire at the the end of this year There are only two candidates in the district’s second precinct so both automatically are entered in the general election There are three candidates in precinct No 1 and four in No 2 so there are primary races in create a certain rhetorical what it means The word is not in most dictionaries perhaps because nobody wants to admit there is or ever was such a thing But there was “Fragging” was the unofficial name given to an unacknowledged combat procedure Fragging has its equivalent in politics also The very idea of an “open convention” for the Democrats has been called “cynical and unethical” by their chairman John White “The very idea that a few men with a lot of money could overturn the decision of millions of Democrats” Those guys trying thus to resurrect the candidacy of Ted Kennedy local board’s role in molding the future of the community the state and nation 3 Have a willingness and desire to assume the legislative authority with its moral implications for the educational program of the local Jr tion I had already been home from my trip 10 days by that time Wouldn’t you say common decency dictated that my good Christian landlord at least inform me of this fact so I could have been partly prepared for a possible rent raise? Later one of the new landlords proposed $175 a month (without improvements) if his partner would agree However we (my two children and I) are going to move I think I deserved better than 10 days’ notice Don’t you Tina S Cook Making Friends I have some friends who carry the US mail and have heard many stories relating to mean dogs and mail carriers After much serious thought and after noticing the arti- cles about saving the wild burros and mustangs that roam the western states I think perhaps I have a solution to some of those problems First we have the Fish and Game Department and the BLM round up these wild animals Second the environmentalists under the direction and with the help of the Humane Society could trim the excess growth from the feet of these animals (the normal feet of horses and burros grow about inch per month) and third send it to the Food and Drug Administration to do whatever they do to it Then they could package it and each day as the mail carriers leave the Post Office they could take a small amount of this purified sealed packaged hoof to feed to the mean dogs on their route thus making friends with them and doing away with torn trousers painful bites and desperation foot one-four- Harrisville I have been shoeing horses for several years and have made in- many friends in the livestock dustry I have noticed how dogs dearly love to chew on the hoof parings and chunks that are cut from the horses feet and have made friends with mean dogs by feeding them some of the hoof that has been trimmed previously 1 th races This project even has more advantages It would give the Fish and Game Dept something to do every 3 to 4 months It would be a good test for the BLM and the environmentalists in that they would learn to work harmoniously with and appreciate each other more And of course the Humane Society would be kept busy holding up the horse’s foot while the Food and Drug Administrators trimmed the excess growth from said food and whisked it away to be purified for use by the Postal Dept As this program began to function Insur- perhaps the Postal Health ance would drop and the dogs would change their attitude This program has so many possibilities Perhaps you can think of some that I have overlooked If you do why don’t you send them to our federal lawmakers bill passers and yes men in Washington If we can get them as excited about this project as I am (election year remember?) things will really start popping Don Kennington |